Forgotten Memories
by Sakura245
Summary: The fragile peace between the Port Mafia and the Armed Detective Agency was short lived. It is shattered when the Port Mafia abducts Atsushi and erases his memories. Atsushi doesn't remember who he is or his own power. To make matters worse, he is assigned to be Akutagawa's apprentice. Let's see how this plays out...
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own** ** _Bungou Stray Dogs_** **or its incredible, deep, and well written characters.**

 **Hi! I felt like going crazy and writing another** ** _Bungou Stray Dogs_** **fanfiction, so I did. I'm an angst writer and I just had to do something kind of intense with this anime. So... yeah. That's about all I have to say. Enjoy!**

Atsushi's head pounded when he woke up. Throbbing as though it was a heart pumping blood. He moaned, trying to put together how he'd ended in a dark prison cell of a room. He remembered what happened, but somehow, it was all jumbled and disjointed like an unfinished puzzle. Some events were hazy and others appeared out of sequence.

 _Okay, okay._ He thought when panic began to set in. _Just start from the beginning. What happened before I left the dorms?_

The day had started out like any other. He'd woken up, he'd gotten dressed and brushed his teeth, he ate breakfast with Kyouka, and he reported to the Agency office. So, really the day was shaping up to be a normal day.

He'd gotten to go investigate a murder with Tanizaki. He'd gone on Ranpo's behalf again. And… If he remembered right… after that investigation… something had gone wrong.

The sun was beginning to set and Yokohama was bathed in a golden orange light. Atsushi walked out of the grocery store, carrying a paper bag filled with food and ingredients that he'd told Kyouka he would pick up on his way home. He took in a breath as he walked back to the agency. The warm weather was comfortable as opposed to the ridiculously humid days they'd had the week before.

 _What would be best for dinner tonight?_ He thought. _We ate miso last night, so I feel like we should have something aside from soup._ He considered all the dinner options he could think of on the way back. _Maybe we can have-_ Something small collided with him. He staggered backwards, reprimanding himself for getting so lost in thought. A little girl sat where they'd bumped into each other. She had big tears in her eyes.

"Oh, gosh," Atsushi began, holding out a hand to help her up. "I'm so sorry." She reached for his hand and he pulled her back to her feet. "Are you alright?"A few tears rolled down her cheeks as she nodded. She looked like she was desperately trying not to cry. "Are you sure?" Atsushi asked. The girl began to nod again, but then shook her head.

"I-I…" She began to sob. "I lost my mommy!"

A few people turned to stare and Atsushi lead the child to sit down on a bench. "Okay," he said gently, trying to sooth her. "It's okay, I'll help you look for her."

"Really?" The girl said, her sobbing slackening.

"Of course," he responded, getting up. "Where was your mother going before you got seperated?"

"Umm… She- she was going to a store."

Atsushi suppressed a slight sigh. That didn't narrow their search down by much. "Do you know which store?" The girl shook her head. "Would you be able to point it out if you saw it?" The little girl thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

"I think it was... over there," she replied, pointing in the direction that she'd come from.

Atsushi smiled kindly. "Okay. Let's go look for her then." He shifted his grocery bag so he could hold it in one arm. His free hand stretched down, offering it to the little girl. Her fingers wrapped around two of his fingers, since her hand was too small to circle his hand fully.

Helping a child find her mother would probably cause him to come home late, but Atsushi figured Kyouka would understand. Worst came to worst, he'd simply have to go to the police station and they'd figure out how to get the lost child home from there.

He asked a lot of meaningless questions on the way there, and they did seem to distract the girl from her fear of being without her mother. "Do any of these stores look like the one?" He asked eventually after walking for about thirty minutes.

She twisted up her mouth, trying to remember. "Mmm…" She puzzled over it for a minute. "I think it had a green dress in the window."

 _That would have been helpful to know earlier…_ He brushed away his exhausted feelings. He didn't have room for negativity right now.

Another ten minutes passed, and Atsushi's eyes continually scanned for green. He squinted at one of the windows. "Is that it?" He asked.

The little girl's eyes lit up. "Yes!" She cried excitedly. She ran to the door, pulling Atsushi with her. He let her, since it was possible that the mother could have left the store and he couldn't just abandon a child in the middle of Yokohama.

They weren't greeted by a normal store. The interior of the shop was splattered with blood. It was everywhere. On the floor, on the merchandise, covering the walls, dripping from the ceiling. He quickly covered the girl's eyes before she could soak in too many details. He felt tears beneath his hand. "Okay," he said as carefully as he could. "We'll go to the Agency, they'll figure some stuff out with the police. Everything will be fi-"

Before he could finish his sentence, something sharp and hard punctured his abdomen. He looked down, feeling pain and seeing an inky black thread that were all too familiar. "I wouldn't count on that, Weretiger," a voice said from behind him.

Rage filled him, as it always did when he heard Akutagawa's voice. In less than a second, his hands transformed into tiger claws and tore through Rashomon. "Akutagawa!" He yelled angrily. Atsushi shoved the child behind him, nightmares from the scene in front of her were the least of his concerns right now. "Run," he told her as he lunged forward to attack his enemy. "Go to the police!" He turned back to Akutagawa. "What's going on?! The Agency and the Port Mafia have been on good terms for the past month! Do you want to make us fight each other again?"

Akutagawa coughed into his hand before answering. "What I want is irrelevant to this attack. I'm simply doing as I'm ordered." He paused, glancing at the bloody hole in Atsushi's shirt. "By now I know that you're harder to kill than you look, so I'm not simply toying with you as I did last time."

Rage surged through Atsushi. "I'll defeat you like last time," he yelled, throwing himself forward to attack.

He knew that he and Akutagawa were about equally matched in terms of strength (Mostly). If he could defeat him without causing too much damage to the surrounding area, he'd consider that a success. He dodged a tendril of Rashomon, mentally cursing that he couldn't use any long range attacks.

Akutagawa struck again, and Atsushi grabbed a tendril on his right. He pulled it hard, trying to drag his adversary off center. He wasn't quite successful. Akutagawa's Rashomon coiled around his hand, yanking him forward and popping his arm from his socket. He grunted, pushing through the pain and clawing at the string.

Atsushi's legs became those of a tiger, and he launched himself forward. He slashed Akutagawa in the abdomen. Blood splashed, painting the walls with more red. Akutagawa looked stunned. "If I wasn't told to bring you back alive," he began with a hand pressed against his stomach, which dripped red. "I would kill you right now, Weretiger."

"If you were _able_ to kill me, I think I'd be dead by now," Atsushi responded as Rashomon lashed out, impaling Atsushi and throwing him against the wall. Both of them coughed up blood in that moment.

The bonds of the Rashomon were beginning to weaken. _I should be able to tear through this in-_ He didn't finish that thought. It was cut short by a pinching feeling in his wasn't Rashomon, but it felt very vaguely familiar. He looked down.

The child who he'd been helping earlier stood there, jamming a needle into his side, pressing her thumb down on the plunger of the syringe. "What the-" His words were silenced by a sudden wave of nausea. His senses blurred. The pain of being impaled a few minutes ago faded to a dull throb. He felt himself drop to the ground, hardly able to recognize his surroundings. Atsushi experimentally flexed his fingers, the movement felt numb. _Crap..._ He thought as his world got darker and darker until it disappeared completely.

 **I'll be perfectly honest: I feel like starting a fanfiction is one of the hardest parts. In this one, I'm just trying to establish how Atsushi gets captured because I'd feel this was incomplete if I didn't explain how he got into this small prison room.**

 **So, it will a kind of speed up in the next few chapters. I've got so many plans! =)**

 **Thank you for reading this. Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello!**

 **So, everything's been pretty chill, but at the same time I feel like I've been busy. By the time I post this, I'll have somewhat gotten settled into a new place. Umm... This fanfiction isn't as popular as** ** _Taking in a Tiger_** **(Not so far, anyway) I'll just come out and say that I felt the need to write it because deep down I'm an angst writer.**

 **Here's a new chapter. Enjoy!**

It was fair to say that Atsushi was less than coherent when he awoke in that little prison cell. He still had drugs running through his blood stream and he still felt the effects. _Where am I?_ He thought, his mind working sluggishly. He was lying on his side, his cheek resting against the stone floor. Everything that was beyond a foot in front of him was blurry beyond recognition.

His body felt heavy as if his blood had turned to liquid metal. Atsushi pushed himself up a little, but ended up collapsing. _My arms aren't even strong enough to bear my weight…_ He realized with a sinking feeling.

This wasn't good, at all. He'd been drugged, slashed, and stabbed multiple times. He wasn't sure how long his body would take to recover from that.

He remembered the lost child, the shop drenched in blood, Akutagawa, the needle in his side. Atsushi gritted his teeth angrily. How could he have let his guard drop like that? _To be fair she was a little girl._ He defended in his head.

 _Dazai wouldn't have fallen for that._ He reminded himself.

 _He got captured by Kyouka that one time…_

 _Yeah, but he did that on purpose._

Atsushi sighed. His internal conversation was getting him nowhere. He turned his head, trying to get a good look of his surroundings. There wasn't much to take in. He couldn't use the tiger's eyesight to see in the dark with whatever drug was in his bloodstream and he could only make out a cinderblock walls and a cement floor.

He wasn't sure how long it took for him to recover enough to sit up, but it felt like several hours. _If it took this long to sit up, how long will it take me to stand?_ He thought, his head lolling back against the wall. His strength returned slowly. Bit by bit. Taking forever.

Atsushi had a hard time staying awake. He dozed, his mind shutting down.

The solid door groaned as it swung open. Atsushi flinched, snapping out of his tired trance. "Still sleeping, weretiger?" The figure at the door said as a length of black cloth leapt out at Atsushi. He didn't even have the strength to dodge or counter the attack. Stabs of pain simply pierced through his arm as the Rashomon broke skin and lodged itself in his flesh. His face contorted in pain, and he was surprised that he was even able to scream in his state.

He blinked as he fought through the pain. _Weird…_ He thought, remembering all the other times he'd been stabbed by Akutagawa and hardly reacted. Generally speaking, he had a higher pain tolerance- When the adrenaline was pumping at least. Here and now, he was drugged and hardly able to stand. His weakness shouldn't have come as a shock.

"W-why exactly am I here?" He managed, gripping the thread of Rashomon with his undamaged arm.

Akutagawa shrugged casually. "If it were my choice, I would have killed you in shop, but I received orders to take you alive."

"Hasn't the Port Mafia learned not to interact with the Guild by now?"

"We're not turning you over the Guild, imbecile. If I saw any of their members, I would likely kill them."

Atsushi frown. "Why am I even here then?" He questioned indignantly.

A second went by before Akutagawa suddenly sent tendrils of Rashomon to curl around Atsushi's limbs, pinning him in place, which seemed like overkill since Atsushi was already incapacitated. "The higher ups have a plan. I simply carried out my orders."

"Excuse me," a feminine voice said. Both Akutagawa and Atsushi turned to the doorway. A woman with a long blond hair squeezed past Akutagawa and into the prison cell. She glanced at him with some strange mix of disdain and attracted curiosity. "They told you I was coming, right?" She inquired uneasily when she looked at Atsushi's impaled limbs.

"If I hadn't been informed," Akutagawa began as his Rashomon coiled further around Atsushi's body. "You would have been dead before you made it through the door." The lady seemed to pale a little, but managed to keep an unflinching look on her face.

"Glad to know we have decent security here," she muttered.

Akutagawa didn't respond to her comment, he seemed more irritated than anything else. "Just do your job."

She took a breath in and nodded before stepping over a strand of Rashomon to get face to face with Atsushi. She knelt down, staring into his eyes for a minute.

 _Torture division?_ He wondered, mentally preparing himself for the worst. If he could endure Doctor Yosano's treatment, he could endure whatever this woman was about to do.

Except, she didn't suddenly pull out any instruments of torture or start hitting him or anything. She kept staring. Then she bit her lip and reached out to hold Atsushi's chin. He pulled away, but she had a surprisingly strong grip. "This one's awfully cute," she said, still holding his chin. Glancing back at Akutagawa, she sighed. "I almost feel bad doing my job here."

He was less than amused. "Akina, do it now or I'll gut you like a fish."

Akina turned back to Atsushi and rolled her eyes, making sure Akutagawa didn't see. She closed her eyes for a second. Suddenly, an awful sensation tore through Atsushi's head. He took a sharp breath in, trying to regain some composure, finally managing to yank his face out of Akina's hand. His head felt like it was being crushed under some tremendous weight. "Wha-" He began, panting. Atsushi took a deep breath in to steady himself. "What was that?"

The corners of Akina's mouth pulled upward and Atsushi got the sense that she hardly felt bad for doing her job. "My ability," she said as she reached out to ruffle his hair. "Is called Amnesia." Atsushi flinched when her hand made contact with his head, suddenly more weary of her than he was of Akutagawa. Akina didn't seem to notice. She tilted her head. "I think you can guess what it does."

Atsushi writhed against the threads of Rashomon that held him in place. His struggle didn't accomplish anything, he was too weak to escape. Akina exhaled deeply. "Stay still, Darling." Her hand pressed against Atsushi's forehead. "I'm just going to dig around in your memories a little bit."

 **And there is chapter 2! I'll come right out and admit that Akina may or may not be a representation of fanfiction writers' sadistic streaks to their characters. We love them, and out of love we make them hurt... Character pain is the best!**

 **Anyway, please Review! Thank you!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hiiii! It hasn't been that long, but I've been pretty hyped. I'm a college student now! All sleep deprived and studying stuff! And I have *drum roll* A DORM FISH! His name is Atsushi! He's my profile picture! Anyway... Here it is.**

Akutagawa left after about five minutes of the process, he mustn't have had the patience to stay for the whole few hours that Akina said it would take.

The pain incapacitated Atsushi as much as Rashomon would have. He moaned, staring at Akina with narrowed eyes. He determined then for sure, that this woman was terrifying.

She'd been "digging around in his memories" for only five minutes and he was in total, complete agony. Not just the pain of her fingers poking and prodding at his memories, that definitely wasn't pleasant though. What hurt the most was that all that poking and prodding unearthed memories that he'd managed to forget. The kind that were meant to stay forgotten and buried. Tears randomly ran down his face. His torturer was oblivious.

Akina would talk. She'd talk casually about how she disliked Akutagawa, but maintained a mediocre work relationship with him, how she used to erase memories for the heck of it, how she thought he was adorable, how she'd wound up with the Port Mafia.

She just kept talking, Atsushi listened, mainly in attempt to ignore the searing pain in his head.

Akina moved her hand to Atsushi's cheek, and ran her thumb under his eye to wipe away a tear. "Believe it or not," she began to say as she lowered her hands and let him try to recover from the previous swell of pain. "I didn't really want this job." She brushed his hair from his eyes gently. "It pays pretty well and I couldn't very well live without them. My ability isn't easy to control." As if to demonstrate, she dragged the back of her hand against his cheek, which sent a shock of pain through his head. Atsushi yelped and Akina shrugged. "That's about the sum of it."

"I kissed my parents goodnight one night, and they forgot who I was by sunrise. I guess it's fair to say that this kind of thing happens with ability users." She laughed bitterly. "I mean, you were a tiger your whole life and you had no idea until you were eighteen." Atsushi looked at her with wide eyes. "I only see _some_ your memories. Just the very prominent ones," she explained.

Akina reached for him again, and he attempted to move away. She exhaled a slight laugh. "Calm down," she muttered, her fingers brushing his temples. He gritted his teeth. "This whole thing is almost over. You won't remember this pain, you'll forget the agony in your life." Atsushi shook his head. "This would be easier on you if you stopped resisting, you know."

Atsushi glared at her. "Can't… let… you… do this," he managed through gritted teeth. "Can't forget… Agency…."

The woman took a deep breath in and put her fingers to either side of Atsushi's head. "Neither of us has a choice," she growled, unleashing her full power on Atsushi. He could feel it, his memories fading away. The person he'd been because of them slowly vanishing. The tears on his face, the screams that tore at his throat, and the heat of Akina's hands went unnoticed.

Atsushi slumped against the wall. Akina looked like she was about to collapse. The boy glared at her, he hated her. Only… he didn't know why. He hated her, that was the only thing he could process. As for where he was, how he got there, and who he was, he had no idea.

The woman got up, despite the shaking in her legs. She tilted her head, looking back at Atsushi before pulling on a pair of latex gloves and firmly grasping his chin so she could see his eyes.

"Hmm…Maybe I went a little overboard," she muttered to herself. She released him and clapped her hands together, watching his face contort in pain as the noise echoed about in his brain. "Yeah," he murmured. "Went too far. Well, you'll be fine in a little while. Don't fight passing out, Darling. It'll make it all easier on you to sleep it off." But based on the way his eyes could barely stay half open, he probably couldn't fight unconsciousness even if he wanted to.

"I could hear his pathetic screams from here," Akutagawa muttered in disgust when Akina entered a room at the end of the hallway.

She shrugged. "Apparently, losing memories hurts… a lot." She pulled her hair into a loose ponytail over her shoulder. "I'd like to say he took it like a champ… I'd like to, but his response was pretty normal." She paused, peeling off her gloves since they were so cheap feeling and uncomfortable. She smirked. "It was nice to finally meet your rival." Akutagawa glanced at her annoyedly, but said nothing. Akina continued. "He's a lot less than I thought he'd be though."

"He's got a powerful drug in his system," he muttered. "He's going to be weaker than normal right now. It's basically the same as if Dazai were grabbing his wrist."

"Hmm…" Akina bit the inside of her cheek. "How's your injury doing?" She asked, noticing how the man next to her occasionally had a hand braced against his abdomen.

"It hardly counts as an injury."

"Okay then," she muttered, not wanting to get in a fight with him. For her own safety, she guessed that she should leave. "He's gonna need some down time, so… Give him a day or so."

"The weretiger needs that long to recover?" Akutagawa muttered. "How weak."

"I suggest a few days also because the mind is a strange thing. If he sees you again too soon, his memories could come back. Or at least the emotions he associates with you. Then he'll know how much he hates you."

Akutagawa shrugged. "I hated Dazai and he was still able to teach me what I needed to know. If he hates me so much that he refuses to learn, I'll just beat lessons into him. He heals fast, so it's no big deal."

Akina frowned. "I'd like to argue that those were different circumstances, but his training is in your hands, so… Have fun with that."

 **So, yeah... I decided to go on a fanfic writing spree today... I probably could have been doing like 20 more productive and beneficial things to do, but writing this chapter was fun (Even if I'm a dorm hermit now). Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Happy Halloween! Thank you for the support in this fanfiction.**

 **Anyway, next chapter!**

Atsushi couldn't be sure how long he'd been in the cramped, cinderblock room. It felt like days, and it probably was. _How did I even get here?_ He asked to no one. He was alone, and no matter how much he yelled for an exclamation or for someone to show up, no one came. He gave up on calling for help when he felt like his throat was lined with sandpaper.

So, he sat. He curled up in the corner, waiting for something to happen, trying to piece everything together. _Why am I here? Will I be here forever?_ He couldn't help but feel a heavy feeling in his heart, like it was being weighed down by rocks. He rose again, and tried to look under the door to see if there was anyone outside. No one…

Then a more disturbing thought came to his head. _Who am I?_ He took a deep breath in when he realized how little he knew. He couldn't say he knew anything of his personality or life. _Start small._ He told himself. _What's my name?_ It took him hours to admit that he didn't even have an answer to that question. _How do I not know my own name?_ He asked himself. _How pathetic is it that I don't remember my name and who I am?_ It almost made him want to laugh a sort of sad, broken, terrified laugh.

Atsushi felt a hollow feeling in his stomach. _And now I'm hungry…_ He thought pessimistically. He pushed himself off the floor and kicked the door hard, trying to get someone to come, trying to see if anyone was there.

No one came.

Akutagawa had been against this plan from the start. He didn't want to train the Weretiger. He wanted to watch him die and beg for mercy. He'd wanted to kill him from the moment Dazai had said that he was superior to him.

But, there was no way out of this. He couldn't disobey orders and manage to get off the hook like he normally did. The boss had made it abundantly clear that he wouldn't escape punishment so easily if didn't do as instructed.

It had been two days since Akina had wiped the tiger's memory, so it was about time to fill his blank slate of a brain. In all honesty, Akutagawa would really be content to leave him in the cell to rot, but that would get him in trouble, so he reluctantly went to get him.

Training someone else was a foreign concept to him. The closest he'd come to being the teacher was having Kyouka as his subordinate, which didn't totally count since he'd only planned to sacrifice her life on that train awhile ago. _If she hadn't started feeling so many emotions, she'd be dead and the Weretiger would have been sold off..._ He cursed mentally. _Why couldn't that have happened?_ He realized that he was actually supposed to teach and not sacrifice this one, which made the concept of teaching him harder.

 _How did Dazai train me?_ All that came to mind was a lot of instructions on how to move, beatings, and pain. _I can do that._ He thought, shrugging.

Atsushi found himself curled up in the corner after a long while of banging on the door. His stomach felt like it was digesting itself, and he was beginning to get lightheaded. _Am I going to die in here?_ He wondered. He couldn't be sure, but it was really beginning to look that way now. Atsushi estimated that it had been a few days since he'd first woken up in that dank little prison cell with no memories, and since then, he'd seen no one, heard whispers of voices, but no discernable words, and had eaten nothing.

Suddenly, the door flung open. Atsushi jumped up from his spot, which brought on a wave of vertigo. He staggered forward, but managed to catch himself before leaning against the wall.

A man who seemed to be made of shadows stood in the doorway. Atsushi could feel the temperature drop a few degrees. Atsushi backed up against the wall. He was cornered. This man wouldn't let him escape.

"W-who are you?" Atsushi managed, finding his voice. Then all the questions he'd been holding back spilled out. "Where am I? Who am I? Can I have food?"

A black tendril of cloth pierced the wall, mere inches from Atsushi's head. He could feel the blood drain from his face as his eyes travelled to the shards of cinderblock crumbling from the wall. Another tendril formed into a point at his throat and Atsushi swallowed hard, keeping his body as still as possible.

"Another word out of you and I cut your throat open, understood?" The man said darkly. The Weretiger's eyes flashed to his face then back to the point at his throat.

 ** _I'll assume he understands._** **Akutagawa thought. He let his Rashomon retreat and his new student slumped against the wall, one hand on his throat. "From this point on," Akutagawa began. "I am your master."**

 **So, that was something... Ugh, it took me like 7 minutes to take control of the** ** _Bold_** **button for the Author's notes or whatever you call these...**

 **Just to let everyone know, I'm just going to come out and say that this will not be a Yaoi... I don't really do those. (Yes, I know that I will probably be losing followers, but, hey... I'm too honest)... I'm also tricky enough that I put this note at the end. =P**

 **I hope you all continue to read this anyway. Love the support still. Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Well, I didn't completely expect to write another chapter of this story. I got very invested in writing** ** _Out of One Prison and Into Another,_** **and let me tell you, it is a very emotional process.**

 **It has been more than a year since I've written anything for this.**

 **So, I'm back!**

 **I hope you enjoy this!**

Akutagawa never answered his student's questions. There wasn't a need to. He knew all that he needed. Dazai had once said that knowledge was power. At first, Akutagawa had assumed that it was just something Dazai quoted from a book or something. He still paid it mind, of course. Brushing off something Dazai said would get him in trouble as he well knew. Very soon though, it became apparent to him how true that statement was.

The weretiger was a blank slate now. No points of reference. No one he could call for. No name he could call himself. And because of that, he had no power. None at all. Akutagawa knew all the things the weretiger didn't, so he was the more powerful between the two of them. That was why the weretiger follow behind him voluntarily. Under normal circumstances, he'd likely have been handcuffed and dragged along.

A high buzzed in the very back of Akutagawa's brain. Small enough to be quiet, but big enough for him to feel.

He felt so powerful now.

It would be one thing to grab the weretiger by the shirt and haul him away. They were roughly evenly matched in strength, so it's not like it would be too difficult for him. But, to have the weretiger following him without the use of physical force was a new thing for him. And it was fascinating. He held power over the Jinko as Dazai had held over him.

In a life where he had known so little power, feeling it was exhilarating.

The weretiger didn't speak. Save for a few whimpers and panicked breaths, the weretiger was silent. He played with his fingers as he followed several feet behind Akutagawa, his posture rigid.

Akutagawa glanced back at him a few times, mostly to make sure he was following.

He did follow, leaving a decent gap between them, which Akutagawa prefered. Really, it only made sense that the weretiger follow him. Behind them was a dead end and to the sides were cells.

It was strange to see him this way. It was strange to even imagine him this way. They had hated each other after all. They had hated each other for a few months at the very least. Seeing the weretiger without resentment in his eyes was to some extent a little off putting. It was something that Akutagawa had almost always seen when he saw the weretiger.

The whole situation was a weird callback to when they'd first met. Akutagawa was only there because he had a job to do. And the weretiger… he'd been a child more or less. He'd stared at Akutagawa and his Rashomon like he'd never seen an ability user before. If his sense of empathy hadn't been quenched by years on the streets and even more smothered by Dazai's harsh treatment, he might have felt bad for him. Heck, he might have felt guilty.

But he hadn't felt a trace of guilt then and he didn't feel a hint of guilt now. He wasn't so weak to let emotions rule over him, he'd never been overly emotional. And, if he had been, Dazai's training would have wrung that quality out of him.

So, he'd do the same to his student.

"Umm…" The weretiger began softly before thinking better of it. He made a small noise from the back of his throat. Like the whine of a panicked animal.

Unasked questions seemed to hover in the air, getting punctuated by the weretiger's gulps and stutters every few minutes. He could sense the tension that radiated off of his prisoner- No, not prisoner. _Student_. He could sense the tension that radiated off of his _student._

That title would take some getting used to.

He sighed as he climbed up the stairs, hearing the weretiger's footfalls echoing off the concrete walls after a few more steps.

The boy behind him tried to speak again before going silent.

They took the long way to the apartments. It was the way with less people because the very last thing they needed was for a conversation or a face to trigger the weretiger's memory.

No words were exchanged between them during the trip.

 _Good._

"You're staying here," Akutagwa said as they walked into an empty apartment.

The weretiger looked around, the look in his eyes almost as blank as the walls for a moment. He opened his mouth for a second before shutting it and biting his lip, his brow furrowed.

Akutagawa glared, annoyance prodding at his brain. "You can ask a question."

He played with his fingers again for a moment and bit the inside of his cheek before speaking. "Why am I here?" His voice was sandpapery, scratchy from either disuse or screaming too much.

"You're-" Akutagawa paused to cough into his fist. "You're my student now. I assumed you would understand that."

The weretiger blinked, obviously lacking understanding. "I-I'm sorry," he said softly. "I don't really understand." He swallowed thickly. "Um...Who- who am I?"

He flinched when Akutagawa sighed heavily. "You're the weretiger, Jinko."

"Uhh…" He glanced from side to side as though some sort of answer was written on the walls. He didn't know what he was any of that meant. "So… Is my name Jinko?"

It was like talking to a newborn, something completely blank and seemingly untouched by the world. It was irritating to say the least. However, Akutagawa understood that it was necessary. With his memory, the weretiger would be almost impossible to control. This, the confusion, the utter lack of knowledge was the thing that made him so powerless in this situation. It's what will make him easy to manipulate.

The blank stare he got was plenty annoying, but he'd have to work with it.

"Yes," he said impatiently since he really _could not_ care less about what the weretiger believed his name was. Such a trivial detail didn't matter.

"Oh," he murmured. "Then-" he cut himself off, his face thoughtful. He blinked a few more times. His face almost looked strained as though thinking too hard took a physical toll on him.

Akutagawa's patience was dwindling.

"Uh…" the weretiger looked down. "C-Can I have food?"

 **My gosh, it was driving me crazy to keep writing "the weretiger" instead of "Atsushi." One of the hardest parts of writing Akutagawa for me. So, Atsushi thinks his name is Jinko now... That'll be fun.**

 **I'm thrilled to get support on this story! Honestly though, after the last chapter was posted, I was just sitting there thinking, "Well, dang it, I don't actually know what I want to do with this." I know what I want to write now or at the very least a better idea of it what to write. I should really just outline all of the things I write ahead of time...**

 **So, anyway, feel free to comment! It's really, really great to get feedback.**

 **Until next time!**


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